Yes, they have Diet Coke in China. These days it’s fairly easy to get, especially in the big cities, as evidenced by this photo of a diet coke can posted by cogdogblog on Flickr.

When I first went to China in 2002, to a smallish city in Guangdong, it was almost impossible to get.

Having searched the city, with no luck, I tried asking for it in the Dynasty Hotel, which was to become our favourite watering hole. The waitress just couldn’t understand me, even with the help of my phrasebook and my miming.

After about 15 minutes of this, on and off, something went click in her mind and she brought me an ice cold can (yes it was cold!), just like the one in the picture and I was a very happy man! Here is a rather blurry photo of a it:

EDIT 4 July 2012: Note that my can is quite bit older than cogdogblog’s one. This all happened way back in 2002, when Diet Coke was almost impossible to get in China. It’s much more common these days.

Actually it was called Coke Light, not Diet Coke, which is the name which was used in Hong Kong for some reason. I’m not sure what it’s called in China these days. Obviously, it has a Chinese name, which you can see in the picture, but if you turn the can around, the other side will be in English.

The reason I took the photo wasn’t for posterity or to put it on the Internet years later. It was to keep on my camera, so I could show it to people at other restaurants / bars / shops and hopefully get a can of Diet Coke as a result.

The first time I tried to use the photo to get a can of Diet Coke was at a Buddhist restaurant at a tourist destination / scenic spot. I took out my camera, found the photo and showed it to the waitress. Her eyes lit up. She said something like “we have, we have” and went racing out the back.

She was back minutes later with an icy cold can of … Coke. Not Diet Coke. Coke.. Sigh.

Something was obviously lost in translation. Actually, I think at that time Diet Coke was so rare that the vast majority of people in China didn’t even know it existed. When presented with the photo, the waitress could tell it was a Coke product, but couldn’t differentiate between Coke and Diet Coke.

At the time, I wasn’t into Coke at all, I really only wanted Diet Coke, so this was major disappointment. The irony is that I no longer drink Diet Coke. I’m a Coke man again!

7 Responses

Very good idea to take a photo for explaining later! You should have focused on the two black characters, because that’s the word for “diet”. The big red characters say “Coca Cola”, so it’s understandable that she didn’t notice the small black characters and just brought you a coke.

linkuyari

(9 Oct 2010):

Güzel Konu Paylaşım İçin Teşekürler

Tom

(20 Nov 2010):

I’m really not sure if there is anything “Lost in Translation” at all. As the first poster mentions, the large bold print is simply the Chinese transliteration of Coca-Cola. The smaller characters denote Diet: the character 健 means healthy; the second character 怡 means happy or cheerful; and its effect is to slightly lower the tone of the previous character for health and inject a sense of enjoyment into drinking the lower sugar content version of the drink.
It is natural that the waitress would pass up on the smaller print, when it would be the larger print to catch her attention. In fact, on the Mainland Diet Coke is still labeled under this same moniker “健怡可乐“； but it is probably now a lot better known!

L

(20 Feb 2011):

Diet Coke vs Coke light.

Just to mention it. It is only Diet Coke in the US.
In Europe it is Coke light as well.

Interestingly, from 2003 till 2011 I never found one single can of Coke Light in Mainland,
but quite easily found Coke light lemon.
Coke and Pepsi distributed in the US and PRC are so terrible sweeter than Euopean and HK Coke and still cannot understand, how anyone could willingly drink that sh*t.
I am grateful for the wide availability of Coke Zero (I spit on Pepsi Max) nowerdays.

Tiina

(13 Jan 2012):

During my many trips to shoe factories in Fujian province, Diet Coke was referred to as “fat-people’s Coke” by the locals. I thought that was hilarious!

ken

(14 Mar 2016):

Hello Folks,
I am an American living in Changping in Guandong Province. There is No diet coke available in Dongguan in Walmart or Metro or any other food store. I am still trying to find diet coke (NOT coke light, NOT coke zero, but Diet coke with ‘aspartame & acesulthame K as sweeteners). These are the diet coke and sweeteners sold both in the USA and Great Britain. The British diet coke is available in several different outlets in Hong Kong-Great supermarket and Taste/Park n Shop. When diet coke was being canned in China, I once bought 50 cases-all for me-that was in 1992. For the past three years I was buying diet coke online, delivered to my front door for RMB13.31 per can. But these people no longer handle diet coke. ParknShop Shenzhen does Not have diet coke. Can anybody help me find diet coke with the above mentioned sweeteners, in Guandong Province?

Thanks Ken

Richard

(24 Jun 2016):

I cannot find diet Pepsi by any name in Nanning, China. Coke Zero is (as it is in the USA) a zero but available so now I have to get that instead. Pepsi Max used to be available but haven’t seen it for two years now. But who wants or needs the extra caffeine. Did buy a coffee maker that grinds and makes the coffee on Taobao and the beans too so I get my caffeine fix that way. And the machine is better than any I had in America. Taobao is great! My next purchase is an ice maker (680 yuan or RMB or about $105USD). Trying to get something cold is a chore in China. They even sometimes serve warm beer!